P.O. Box 125 Eaglesville, Tennessee 37060
The Tennessee Valley Pioneer Power Association hosted their
fourth annual show on September 7th and 8th, 1991. The weather was
beautiful in the South and all the members had their fingers
crossed that this would be the year that our show would top 300
tractors. The final count proved successful as 305 antique tractors
were tallied. Not bad for an area that still used mules in the
1950s!!
Along with the tractor show, the gas engine show was bigger and
better than ever. Exhibitors from several states displayed engines
of yesteryear. The ladies Home Demonstration Club showed off their
talents of years gone by and everyone enjoyed the crafts that were
for sale.
A Parade of Power was featured both days as exhibitors paraded
their tractors in front of the grandstand area. This year two-way
radios were used to help the announcer describe the entries as they
paraded by the grandstand. The Flag tractor on Saturday’s
opening ceremonies was Powell Smith’s W40 McCormick-Deering
which is also featured in the 1992 DuPont calendar. Sunday’s
flag tractor was a Rumely Six owned by our local Allis Chalmers
collector, W. C. Arnold.
Slow races were held in three classes this year. The three
classes are: early antiques built through 1939, late antiques built
from 1940 through 1952, and classics built from 1953 through 1960.
This is the fairest way we have found to conduct the slow races,
since later tractors tend to be geared slower than earlier
ones.
The hand cranking contest is always a real crowd pleaser, as the
contestants jump from their seats to start the tractor, then mount
the tractor again to race to a finish line a few yards away.
It’s a lot easier to judge which tractor crosses a line first,
than which one starts first and is more exciting to watch! Safety
inspectors always recheck every tractor to make sure that it is in
neutral before being started. They do not, however, remind the
contestant to turn on the switch, which has proven to be the
downfall of many embarrassed crankers!
Probably the highlight of the two day event, at least for the
parents and grandparents, is the children’s pedal tractor races
and pulls. Classes are set up by age as the 3, 4, 5, and 6 year old
children race and the 7,8,9, and 10 year old children pull a
miniature sled with a mechanical weight box just like the big time
pullers. There are so many video cameras around that it is
impossible to see without being in someone’s way! The final
event both days is our antique tractor pull. On Saturday the early
antiques and the late antique classes are held. This year 130
tractors were entered for the Saturday event. On Sunday 105
tractors pulled in the combination antique and classic pull.
Among the rarest of the rare tractors exhibited this year was a
complete Barber Greene loader, which is factory mounted on a
modified John Deere 50 chassis. Are there any more complete units
out there? Not even Expo 11 had a complete unit! One of our goals
is to display as many sets of tractors together as possible. The
’30’ series set of John Deeres always get a lot of
attention and the owners even parade them as a set.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who
made our show possible. It sure takes a lot of time, and nowadays
money, to host a show of this size. But when we look around on show
days and see all the restored antique farm machinery that played
such a role in our country’s past we know the effort was worth
it.
Come and join us next September 12th and 13th for our fifth
annual show and reunion, and be a part of one of the
Southeast’s largest exhibitions of antique farm machinery. Our
show is held in Eagleville, Tennessee which is 30 miles south of
Nashville on Hwy. 41-A.
